Only revenue and payroll data from Executive Branch cabinet departments and their related organizations, the Legislature, and the Judiciary is available at this time. Payroll and revenue data from independent authorities, and spending data for all agencies, will become available by November 2010. Data is included for the current fiscal year for revenue and the current calendar year for payroll.

A fiscal year is the official business year for financial or budgetary purposes, and may be different for different agencies. The executive branch of the State of New Jersey (cabinet departments and in but not of organizations) fiscal year begins on July 1 and ends on June 30 of the following year, and is identified by the year in which it ends (e.g. NJ Fiscal Year 2011 begins July 1, 2010). Some authorities have fiscal year based upon the calendar years. The Federal Fiscal Year begins on October 1 and ends on September 30 of the following year, and is identified by the year in which it ends (e.g. Federal Fiscal Year 2011 ends September 30, 2011).

The New Jersey Constitution limits the executive branch to a maximum of sixteen cabinet-level organizations. These are called "Departments" and include organizations such as the Department of the Treasury and the Department of Environmental Protection. There are also organizations that are "in but not of" cabinet departments, and therefore are not under the direct supervision of the respective cabinet officer. These offices and commissions include organizations such as the Motor Vehicle Commission (Transportation), the Office of Information Technology (Treasury), and the Juvenile Justice Commission (Law & Public Safety). Finally, there are independent authorities, such as the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, New Jersey Transit, and the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency. Collectively, these departments, in but not of organizations, and independent authorities are referred to as agencies. Various state systems (such as the financial, payroll, and personnel systems) will define a master list of agencies differently, depending upon the nature of the system.

The Payroll Data represents what is paid to individual employees, not the expense charged to the agency's budget. As payroll earnings are defined by the Federal Government based upon the calendar year in which they are paid, the payroll data on the transparency site is reported for the calendar year.

There are several factors. The annual salary may appear greater than earnings because the employee recently received an increase, the employee had been on a leave of absence, or the employee began employment sometime after January 1. The annual salary may appear lower than earnings due to overtime, supplemental pay, back pay, or other adjustments. An employee may work part-time for another agency and those earnings will be reflected in the total earnings, but not the annual salary.

Normally, the data should be available by the tenth of the following month. For the month of June, as it is the last month of the fiscal year, it may not be released until the end of July due to year-end processing.

The budget represents State sources of Revenue, and exclusive of the independent authorities, is about twenty-eight billion dollars. In addition to this money, which comes from taxes and fees, the State has additional sources of Revenue - such as Federal and Dedicated sources - totaling about twenty-three billion dollars.